by Mia Hoddell
Nodding I whispered a thanks and we sat through the rest of the lesson in silence, even though neither of us were paying attention. As we got up to leave, Ian stayed with me.
“You sure you’re going to be okay?” he asked, making me face him by holding me at arms length so he could study me.
“No of course not, my dad just died, but I’ll manage.”
He seemed satisfied with my response, probably because it was honest.
I started walking towards the main entrance when I noticed he was still following me.
“Don’t you have football practise?” I asked hoping he said he did so he wouldn’t see me leaving with Kai.
“Nope, coach cancelled it as none of us wanted to play in the heat.”
Great, I thought. A conflict is just what I need.
“Oh, he’d really do that? You lot are a bunch of wimps,” I said feeling slightly more like my old self. Telling the truth and admitting the likelihood of my dad’s death seemed to have taken some of the weight off my shoulders.
“Yeah Yeah, you netball girls have it so much easier.” I elbowed him in the ribs as we walked through the door, to see crowds of girls all staring in one direction.
I had already guessed what they were looking at before I saw him. He was once again leaning against his black Lambo, arms folded as he watched the door.
“Who the hell is that?”
I cringed as he spoke, not wanting to answer him.
“That’s...um, that’s Kai,” I said, flinching as I waited for a torrent of words to flow my way. None came though, instead I looked over to see Ian had already begun striding towards him, fists clenched at his side.
Shit this isn’t what I need right now.
Hurrying after him I called out, trying to get him to stop, but of course he wasn’t listening. Kai turned his head towards us as we approached him, pushing himself of his car in what I guessed was preparation to fight if necessary.
“What are you doing here? Didn’t she tell you what I’d do if I ever saw your face round these parts?” He jerked his thumb angrily in my direction, obviously not put off by the size difference. Ian had a good physique too but he was toned rather than muscular like Kai. I gave up protesting as neither of them were listening to me and just watched. I didn’t know how Kai was going to react to Ian but I definitely didn’t expect him to throw his head back and laugh.
“What’s so funny? You don’t believe me?”
I tried to step in between them but Ian pushed me to the side.
“Stay out of the way Rea. I warned you what would happen if he ever came here Rea.”
I don’t know if he meant to push me so hard but it caused me to stumble and I ended up on the floor. Seeing this Kai’s eyes suddenly got darker, his joking no longer visible.
“Don’t you lay another hand on her,” he hissed through his clenched jaw as he walked towards me, holding his hand out to help me up, his eyes never leaving Ian’s. I looked around embarrassed by the scene and once I did I regretted it instantly. There must have been at least a hundred people looking on from the distance, waiting to see how far the guys would take it.
Kai wrapped his arm around my shoulders as he pulled me towards his car, making sure he kept his body between Ian and myself.
“You hurt?” he asked, his eyes still on Ian and he guided me to the open passenger door. I shook my head in response. “Wait in the car.” I shook my head again, there was no way I was leaving those two out there on their own, I didn’t want to witness another fight.
“Bit possessive isn’t he Rea?”
Before I was worried about Ian, now I was just pissed.
“Go home Ian, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.” Before Kai had finished Ian’s fist flew at his face. Kai quickly dodged the punch though, stepping to the side while pushing me out the way. Then quicker than I thought possible he grabbed Ian’s arm in a vice like grip using the momentum to catch him off balance and twist his arm up behind his back. Ian raised his leg to try and kick back at Kai’s shin but on seeing this Kai pulled his arm slightly higher, causing him to yelp in pain.
“I told you to go home. Rea isn’t your girlfriend anymore and you have no right to start throwing punches.” Kai had lowered his head so his mouth was right next to Ian’s ear.
“You are lucky I have so much more self control than you, but be warned; if you ever try something like that again you’ll spend your whole life regretting it. You have no idea what I’m capable of so I wouldn’t test me.” With a final shove Ian flew to the ground, tripping over his own feet.
He glared at me as he stood up, brushing himself off but I barely spared him more than a glance. My attention was focused on Kai, his performance had scared me a little, he hadn’t shouted or lost his cool like Ian had but that made it worse. He seemed to get bigger, more powerful as he spoke in a harsh voice and his eyes blazed with anger, hot enough to melt ice.
As I watched him I saw Chloe starting to head over but I stopped her with a shake of my head. Now was not the time to start questioning Kai.
“Shall we go?” Nodding I let him once again drape an arm over my shoulders as he guided me to his car. I was scared to question him and even though my doubts had gone into overdrive I wasn’t thinking rationally amongst all the chaos.
“You’re not seriously going to get in a car with that psycho are you Serena?”
Rolling my eyes at Ian I sighed then nervously glanced at Kai who was staring at him in disgust.
Thankfully Chloe had ignored me and was just behind Ian when he spoke.
“Give it a rest Ian. You’re making a fool out of yourself, have you seen how many people are watching you? Let her go, you lost her remember?” she said as she moved to stand in front of him, blocking his path to Kai. He muttered something I didn’t catch under his breath but Chloe heard.
“She maybe, but that’s up to her. You need to go now.” She pushed him in the chest, emphasising her point and thankfully he retreated back to go and catch a bus.
With Ian gone the crowds diminished significantly, but a few stayed to see what happened next.
“What the hell happened Rea?” Chloe then turned on me, her eyes creased with confusion.
“You know Ian. He never thinks, he just saw Kai and charged over here.” Nodding she clearly understood what Ian was like.
“So you’re the infamous Ka,.” she stated, giving him one of her most dazzling smiles as she eyed him appreciatively. He gave a curt nod, still tense from the previous event.
“You better take care of her yeah? She’s been through hell and back the last month and if I hear so much as a moan from her you’ll be facing me.” I laughed at her. She was obviously making it clear that she didn’t trust or like him, even though she had just gotten rid of Ian. It was also obvious that Chloe would prove no match for Kai. Then turning to me she said. “What am I telling your mum or aunt if they phone? I didn’t get a chance to ask you earlier.”
“Just the usual, or make something up if you want, you’re smart,” I said as I started to slide into the black leather seat of the Lamborghini. Nodding she walked off back towards the rest of the girls and Kai walked around to the driver’s side.
* * * *
“So where are you taking me?” I finally asked after an hour of silence.
“How long have you got until you have to be home?” he said, his eyes never wavering from the road. He had a tight grip on the wheel and I guessed he was still angry about Ian.
“I’ve got Chloe covering until Sunday night unless I text her. So where we going?”
“Casonde Beach.” The car sped along the road and out of Rinth as he spoke and I wondered what I had let myself in for.
We drove in silence again for another few hours before he finally broke it.
“We haven’t got much further to go. How you feeling today? You look like you’ve been crying.”
Sighing I turned to face him. “Yeah I didn’t get much sleep last night a
nd I’ve been thinking a lot about him today. I had to run out of a few lessons as I was close to tears. Only Chloe and Ian know what’s happened though.”
His hand reached out and rested on my thigh in reassurance. “It’ll get easier, I promise.” He smiled at me for the first time since we left college as he said that and I hoped his bad mood had passed.
“Why did you tell Ian though?”
I mentally groaned, not wanting to talk about him.
“He could tell I was lying, he knows me too well so I had to and I’m sorry about how he acted back there,” I said, wringing my hands together as I spoke.
“You don’t need to apologise for him Rea. I can handle myself, anyway, he’d be easy to beat.” He shrugged and focused back on the road.
“So do I get any answers now or do I have to wait until we get there?”
“We will be there in half an hour so you’ll have to wait.” He grinned as I groaned out loud this time. Kai had managed to sweep me off my feet and had caused me to forget most of my troubles, or at least make light of them in those few hours and I could feel myself loosening up in his company.
That half an hour seemed to drag on forever but finally Kai pulled into a parking space, the blue water just about visible over the sand dune in front of us, and announced we had arrived.
CHAPTER TEN
Stretching I stepped out of the car, grabbing my camera from the back seat just in case and instantly went to walk up to the top of the dune. I felt Kai grab hold of my wrist though, stopping me from actually putting a foot on the sand.
“We’re going this way,” he said and began walking off to the left of me. Grumbling about being a spoil sport I quickened my pace to catch up with him.
As we walked along the path the dunes finally cleared and I was left with the sight of the clear blue sea sparkling under the hot summer sun. There were quite a few people sunbathing on the sand and some kids running around playing different kinds of games. There were also a few shirtless guys and even though their bodies didn’t come close to the little I had seen of Kai’s, I found myself staring while we passed a fish and chip shop.
“Do you want something to eat?” he asked stopping in front of the stand. “Rea? Um... Rea? Your boyfriend is over here. Do you want something to eat?”
I blushed at being caught.
Nodding he ordered two cones of chips before we continued walking. Chips always tasted better when cooked by the sea. I don’t know what it was about the ocean that effected them but they always made my mouth water.
“So where are we going? Can’t we just sit over there on the sand?” I jerked my head over my shoulder back towards the sandy beach we were leaving behind slowly.
“Just wait, it’s not much further and it’s a lot less crowded.” He smiled across at me.
As we approached I saw why it was significantly less crowded, even in that kind of heat. The soft, golden sand had faded and merged into the dull, miserable looking pebbles. My sandals crunched as I tried to walk straight under the constantly shifting rocks. A few times I lost my footing but thankfully Kai was there to grab my arm to steady me.
“You know, for someone who is pretty athletic you have terrible balance,” he said after the third time of catching me.
“Your fault, you should have taken me on the sand, I’d have been fine there,” I replied as I bent to pick up a pebble to throw into the sea.
“How much further is it?” I was starting to get restless, we hadn’t seen a single person so far and yet he still led me further across the beach.
“Just behind that rock over there,” he said, pointing to a humongous rock that was half on the beach and half in the sea, about a hundred metres away. I kicked a few pebbles in frustration, but after I hit one that was somehow fixed into the ground and stubbed my toe I decided it was not such a good idea.
Kai was just laughing at my disgruntled face as he held out his hand to help pull me onto the rocks.
“Why here? It’s a bit far out isn’t it?” I said as he guided me to the edge that over looked the waves that were crashing against the surface. His feet moved nimbly over the sharp, jagged surface unlike mine.
“It’s perfect then, no one will hear us. Besides this is one of my favourite places to relax and think.” He was looking out to sea when he spoke instead of at me as he pulled me down to sit on the edge, my feet dangling towards the water.
We both sat in silence, I didn’t know what questions to ask and I think he was unsure of how to start. I was staring at a passing boat as he began to speak.
“What do you want to know then?” He turned to face me, pulling his legs up so he was sitting crossed-legged.
“Everything, what your job is, about your family, how you can afford that car, school life etc.”
He sighed while nodding, even though he still seemed reluctant to tell me.
“Okay, I’ll start with my job as most of the other things link with that. I need you to promise me something first though.” I still hadn’t turned to look at him so he stretched out his hand to pull my face gently towards him so he could see me.
“What do you want me to promise?” I wasn’t going to agree to anything before he told me what he wanted.
“I need you to be as open minded as possible. Some of the stuff I’m going to say is going to sound crazy and you’ll probably think I’m mad but I promise I’m not making any of it up. I also need you to promise that you will not to mention what I’m about to say to anyone.” I was wondering what I had gotten myself into as I nodded, agreeing to keep his secret.
He stared at his hands as he began to tell me about his life. “I’m not really sure how to start or say this as I’ve never told anyone before so I’ll just say it bluntly. Basically I’m a killer.”
I stared at him, my mouth open in horror. Oh my god, I knew he was a psycho. Why do I always attract the weirdos. I was about to speak when he held up a hand to silence me.
“Hang on, let me explain as it’s probably not what you’re thinking.”
I eyed him suspiciously as he carried on talking.
“I work for a secret section in the government. Our official title is Sector Nine – Overseeing and Decimating the Elementals, but most people refer to us as the O.D.E. We have a few other nicknames too; we call ourselves Elemental Killers, or E.Ks for short. There are the other ones like bounty killers but they don’t really give an accurate portrayal of us so we tend only to use O.D.E or Elemental Killers.”
I tried to keep up as he spoke but all the letters and technical names were confusing me.
“So you’re a government agent? How is that possible you’re only nineteen... you are only nineteen right? And what are Elementals?” My brain was reeling off a list of questions, trying to make some sense out of what he had told me.
“Yes I’m nineteen, so you don’t have to worry about that,” he said chuckling. “But no I’m not a government agent, the government pay us but we are a separately run sector and the government has little influence in what we do.”
“OK I think I get it, but what are these Elementals you are killing.”
He sighed at my question, this was obviously the part he was dreading.
“This is that part where I need you to be open minded ’kay?”
I nodded hesitantly, unsure if I really wanted to hear this as it was only adding to my grief.
“Elementals are these creatures that are sort of like spirits and as their name suggests they control the elements. There are four of them that live among us; Fire, Water, Air and Earth but they normally stay away from crowded areas. For a long time now they have been causing freak conditions that are killing a lot of people. My job is to stop them.”
I could tell he was skipping over a lot of facts and small details but for once I was glad as my mind was having trouble understanding.
“Okay so these creatures, The Elementals, why are they doing this?”
“At the moment we believe it’s because they want their
land back. We humans colonised their island and we have slowly ruined the energy they need to live but seeing as they started using forceful methods, we have retaliated. Plus we can’t really hold a mass evacuation as what would we tell people? That’s the main theory anyway. You’re handling this surprisingly well by the way.”
I smiled at his comment. If only he knew what was going on inside my head, he wouldn’t be saying that.
“Right, so I’m guessing your job pays well and that’s how you can afford a car like yours?” He nodded and looked slightly confused by the easy question.
“So when was the last time you were on a job?” I wasn’t sure if I believed him just yet as paranormal spirits seemed a little far fetched.
He rubbed his face uneasily, as if stalling for time before answering. “The night of the fire near your house.”
I sucked in a breath of air in shock as my mind started fitting pieces of a puzzle together. “You mean...” I said when I finally exhaled, not realising I was holding my breath.
“Yes, the fire at your house was not started naturally. It was an Elemental attack which is why I came so quickly when I heard. There was no chance of the firefighters being able to put out the flames and when I got there they were still battling them away from the house. Only when I killed the Elemental responsible did they start to make progress.”
I lay on the hard, jagged rock as I listened to him. My dad was murdered by a supernatural spirit. Kai must have been able to read my thoughts from my face.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t have been there sooner Rea, I really am. Also know it’s hard to accept, but there was nothing anyone could have done unless they were an E.K.” He stroked my face as I left out ragged breaths.
“Not your fault.” I sniffed, “tell me about that night.” His charcoal stained face and muddy appearance made sense now.
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
I sat up suddenly and glared at him. “I need to know Kai. I’ve just found out that spirits having been killing off people including my dad, I have a right to know what happened that night.”